


Assay

by MajesticianWaffle



Category: Naruto
Genre: Actually almost all the chapters are written and published at 3 AM it's a problema, BAMF Haruno Sakura, BAMF!Naruto, BAMF!Sai, BAMF!Sasuke, But He Gets Better, Exploring Chakra, Exploring Civilians in the Shinobi world, Gen, Gratuitous Over indulgence of Minor characters, Haruno Sakura-centric, Hatake Kakashi is a Bad Teacher, Hatake Kakashi is a Little Shit, Kenjutsu Master!Naruto, Medic!Sasuke Uchiha, Okay Team 7 is just going to be OP, Or maybe it will who knows, Sai is a little shit, Strong Female Characters, Strong Haruno Sakura, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think, and it'll be all good, i wrote this at 3 am, probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:54:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24881887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MajesticianWaffle/pseuds/MajesticianWaffle
Summary: They say we only truly know who we are when faced with split-second decisions, heart beating against your ears as instincts take over and all you can see, hear, and breathe is the adrenaline running through your veins.When all is said and done, Sasuke underestimates Sakura, and it changes everything.
Comments: 165
Kudos: 441





	1. Resolve

**Author's Note:**

> [coughs]readtheendnotes[coughs]

"I love you Sasuke-Kun! please don't leave!" 

Even as Haruno Sakura said those words, her mind was racing, apprehension dawning as she realized the situation she and her teammate, now apparently a nuke-nin to be, were in. In another world, Uchiha Sasuke was the light of her preteen age years, and even beyond. In another world, the Uchiha heir would knock her out cold and lay her down on a bench before leaving Hi No Kuni with the Sound Four, Knohagakure being but a forgotten memory in his quest for vengeance. In another world, Haruno Sakura's mind wouldn't be racing with the thought of ' _Traitor, Traitor, **Traitor.**_ ’ as her brain instinctively catalogued all the Academy taught protocol for when dealing with a defector. In this world, Uchiha Sasuke might have realized his error had he not written off his pink-haired teammate as a non-threat immediately. Even as she took a step back, muscles taut, he didn't feel so much as an ounce of panic at being caught, in the end, it was this arrogance that was his downfall. 

Sakura had gone through a dozen possible scenarios, thought of every single possible way this could end up. None of them, she was happy with. If she let him go, she would not only be complicit in aiding a defection against her village, she would also be letting him go off on his own to Orochimaru, a man who shook her to the core during their encounter in the forest of death and probably had less then kind plans for her own teammate. It would be easier to just send Sasuke off with a bow around his neck and have him waltz right up to the Sannin. 

Her throat felt dry and scratchy, her limbs shaky with adrenaline as the staredown between two teammates ensued, neither one making a move.

If she raised the alarm, a shinobi would undoubtedly be upon them soon. They were in a Ninja village, after all. Even being in the outskirts of the Eastern District, where mostly craftsmen and workshops were located, it would only take the average Shinobi a minute, at most. All she had to do was flare her chakra in a specific pattern, a distress signal taught at the academy in their third year. Even with his immense talent, Sasuke wouldn't stand a chance against a Chuunin or higher, not without attracting more attention to the fight. Sakura steeled herself, preparing to send the signal when the bastard opened his mouth. 

"Run along now Sakura, go back to Kakashi and Naruto. I don't want to have to hurt you." 

With narrowed eyes, Sakura considered her black haired teammate. Her black-haired teammate who would sooner abandon his village in search of power to take on his brother then heed his own Sensei's advice, the very first lesson he taught them just a few months ago. 

"Those who abandon the mission are scum, Sasuke, but those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum." 

And because of that, she wouldn't turn him in. Not like this. Not when she knows with certainty he would be rightfully labelled as a traitor and shipped off to Torture and Interrogation. Typically, those caught defecting would be sentenced to death after several gruelling sessions at T&I, but this was the last Uchiha. They'd strip away his Shinobi title, maybe be sequestered away indefinitely, but the village was desperate to preserve the Uchiha bloodline. He would live. Probably without ever achieving his dream of killing his older brother and in a way, Sakura mused, that would probably be worse to him than being executed. Sakura's jaw clenches. No, she wouldn't turn him in. Maybe it was her silly childhood crush on him giving her a rose-tinted view or maybe it was the months they spent living, surviving together as a team, or maybe she's just making a huge mistake. Whatever the reason was, Kakashi's mantra rang in her head. 

And so while Sasuke arched his brow, features twisting in disdain at her and what he thought was her naive view of the world, tongue ready with a sharp rebuke, Sakura moved. 

A kunai went sailing past Sasuke's head, his eyes widening as it cut off a piece of his locks, and embedded itself into the tree behind him, scratching into the bark and going hilt deep, the explosive tag wrapped around the handle illuminated by rays of moonlight.

"Release!" 

An explosion pounded against her eardrums, bits of bark and leaves raining down on the two Genin as they moved away from the blast. The sound, while not very loud by itself, was nearly deafening in the stillness of the night. The stunned silence was quickly broken by a scoff from the black-haired boy. 

"Did you seriously think you could stop me with a kunai and an exploding tag?"

No, any Shinobi worth their salt could dodge a kunai thrown point blank and dodge out of an explosion. Luckily, that trick wasn't meant for the Uchiha.

"It wasn't meant to knock you out, Sasuke. Although, hurting you would have been a bonus." 

"Wha-"

"We sensed a disturbance. Shinobi, report." 

The calm voice cut through their conversation, both Genin whipping around to see three masked Shinobi watching them from the roof a tea house, the speaker, who's mask was painted like a panther, stood atop a ridge cap. 

Ah. It seems the cavalry had arrived. 

Sakura could clearly see the emotion flickering over the normally stoic Uchiha's face. Confusion, then understanding, then the expected fury as he turned back towards her.

"I am Genin Haruno Sakura, Shinobi registration number 012601. I identified that my teammate, Uchiha Sasuke, had been placed under a genjutsu by the Sannin, Orochimaru. I have since dispelled it. I believe Knohagakure has had a major security breach."

The Shinobi tensed at the implication, having just lost the Sandaime to Orochimaru in the attack no more than a few weeks ago, the Shinobi forces weren't so keen on hearing the Snake Sannins name. Inwardly, Sakura smirked seeing Sasuke tense as well in her peripheral vision. Clearly, this isn't how he planned his night to go. In a blur of movement too fast for Sakura to see, the Panther ANBU signalled something to his team and both left, without so much as a trace of smoke, only Panther remained on the rooftop. 

"We are to report to the Hokage immediately. Come." 

The ANBU started running towards the Hokage tower, the two members of Team 7 followed, feet pelting against bricks and shingles. Sakura didn't have to look to know that the last remaining Uchiha was definitely sending her a look of pure venom. 

"What the _hell_ , Sakura!" 

"I couldn't just let you go gallivanting off to Orochimaru, Sasuke. You know that."

"Why not just tell the ANBU that I was defecting, then? why spin a lie about me being under a genjutsu?" 

"Do you _want_ to spend the rest of your life in T&I or in prison?" 

"I could just choose to leave again. You should have just turned me in." 

"The last Uchiha, the final remaining chance of resurrecting a clan of Sharingan wielders, has just been placed under a genjutsu that almost coerced him to leave the village and go straight into the lair of a known missing-nin who was driven out of Konoha because of his kekkei genkai experiments and experiments on live human test subjects. You'll be in surveillance for _months_ , Sasuke. Possibly even years. You won't have a chance to leave." 

The silence she received in response spoke volumes.


	2. Big Swings, Big Hits

Standing in front of the Godaime Hokage, Sakura felt no shame in admitting that she lost pretty much all the bluster and bravado she displayed no less than ten minutes ago. She had just fabricated a story, lied to her superiors, to her _Hokage_ , and falsified information regarding Konohagakure’s security. Images ran through her mind, countless hours under interrogation, the shame her parents would feel at having a traitor for a daughter, Naruto and Kakashi-sensei’s disappointed looks through a cell window. The idea of being caught filled her with dread, tension clawing its way up her throat and her heart pounding in her ears.

As the blonde-haired woman peered at them through steepled fingers, brows furrowed in deep thought, Sakura was sure that in that exact moment, the Senju could stare into their soul.

“A genjutsu, huh? A compulsion laced one...Maybe it was linked through fuinjutsu to that seal he gave you prior to the Konoha Crush,”

While the slug Sannin was internationally revered for her revolutionary medical knowledge and her work as an Iryo-nin, Orochimaru was also frequently acknowledged as having a great aptitude for medical ninjutsu. Of course, he ended up using it for less savoury reasons, but Sakura was betting that his capacity for medical ninjutsu was rooted in exceptional chakra control and high intelligence. Both aspects that she herself was greatly commended on during her days in the academy, and both aspects that were a necessity for genjutsu types and specialists. She tamped down her mounting panic. She was taking a big swing with the Godaime being Orochimaru’s former teammate, the blonde probably knew the ins and outs of his preference for Jutsu and would know immediately that the Genin in front of her were lying through their teeth.

“He always was good at genjutsu.”

Big swings, big hits.

The blonde woman sighs and leans back on her chair, drumming her fingers on the desk. Sakura could see that each round of finger tapping left deeper and deeper grooves on the dark grain of the hickory desk, the baluster support seemingly groaning under the immense pressure of the rhythmic movement. The genin fought to keep the anxious tremors from her hands. The Hokage snapped her fingers, and 3 ANBU appeared out of the shadows, in front of Panther who was standing sentinel beside the two Genin.

“Cat, deploy patrols to sectors 1 through 17. Rotate every 6 hours, be alert for any suspicious activity. Tell the Yamanaka to fortify the barrier team. Owl, send 2 tracking teams up to the border, find any trace of Orochimaru or the remains of Sound. Badger, alert all ANBU outposts to be on the lookout for foreign Shinobi in the land of fire, be prepared to mobilize. We cannot afford another attack.Dismissed.”

As the Shinobi dispersed, the Hokage leaned back once more and regarded Sasuke cooly. After several months of being his teammate, Sakura could tell that he was internally fumbling under the weight of the blonde woman’s stare.

“I’m going to train you.”

_What._

It seemed that for once, she and Sasuke agreed on the same thing.

“What.”

Although it seems she was a little bit more polite.

Tsunade snorts, hand reaching under the table and searching for something as the two stunned Genin stood in front of her.

“You, Uchiha Sasuke, will be training under me and my apprentice Shizune for the foreseeable future until I’m satisfied that you have developed enough medical skills to heal yourself in the event you get attacked or someone makes an attempt to nab those pretty eyes of yours. You will also be going under additional supplementary training under Shimon Hijiri and Toribo Tomitake, both Chuunin stationed at the Torture and Interrogation department. They will help strengthen your mental defences and train you further in genjutsu, we need to take precautionary measures in case Orochimaru tries this again.”

There was a pause, then another, then Sakura saw red.

Fucking _typical._

Sakura was livid. _Of course_ , the special clan kid with special organs inside his skull got exclusive training under the Hokage and T&I. _Of course_ , it happens right after he tries to abandon the village in search of some vengeance-fueled pipe dream to kill his murderous older brother. Why would the universe work any other way? Clearly it was his show, and she was just a wash-out side character next to him. Sakura’s fist clenched, nails digging into the flesh of her palms as bitter envy surged deep in the pit of her stomach, jealous rage clawing at her soul, at the sheer _injustice of it all_ -

“Oi, Pink Brat, you okay over there?”

“Y-Yes, Hokage-Sama!”

She read somewhere that it gets easier to hide pain and anger behind a smile when you’ve been doing it for a while. As the Hokage pours herself a cup of Sake, the item she was apparently pulling out from her desk moments ago, Sakura fervently hopes that it’s true.

“Panther, have your squad act as a guard detail for Sasuke. Three within fifty meters from him at all times. Engage at your own discretion. The two of you, go home. It’s been a long night. Uchiha, I expect you at training ground thirty-six at thirteen hundred hours. Dismissed”

The two Genin and ANBU bow and leave, Sakura numbly walking beside her teammate as she processed the night’s events, vaguely aware of the ANBU with his spotted mask walking a respectful distance behind them. Sasuke glances over at her and huffs.

“Well. You got what you wanted. Happy now?”

“Shut up, Sasuke. We got lucky and you know it.”

Sakura tries to compartmentalize. Tries to rationalize that she had a significant role in the recent happenings, that she was the direct reason why her teammate would now be personally trained by the Hokage and several other elite ninjas. That the alternative was much, much worse. She and Sasuke go their separate ways as Sakura heads to the civilian district, heart heavy with resentment and guilt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit heavier, with Sakura feeling like she just got kicked down, but she's going to bounce back really soon, stronger than ever! As you can probably tell, this story is quickly veering off the canon we know and love, one of the first major changes being that Sasuke will become a medic-nin. Shimon Hijiri and Toribo Tomitake are actually canon characters who work in T&I! and the Konoha Barrier Team is also canon, being led by the Yamanaka Clan.  
> Thanks to everyone that gave this a kudos! and thank you to Blue, Itachiisawesome, DieCupcake, Sarella, Val, Northen, Kagame, Vindoletta, Clack, Calaena and Pumpkin for leaving reviews!  
> I just wanted to share some of the weird stuff I had to google for this chapter:1. Parts of a desk2. Strongest woods 3.Breaking desks unprofessional? 4. How do military do patrolling 5.Panthers have spots? lol  
> Anyways, sorry if this chapter is short! from here on out, each chapter will be lengthier, and I'll still be updating 3-4 times a week. I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and weekend! <3 -MW


	3. Overcome

Needless to say, when Sakura arrived at Training Ground 3 to Naruto rhapsodizing at length to Sasuke about how he was going to be personally trained by the ‘Pervy Hermit’, she felt like screaming.Or punching someone in the face. Preferably her teammates' faces, but she didn’t want to discriminate, anybody would do. Sighing as she placed her pack down under the shade of a tree and sat on a gnarled tree root, she subtly looked around for the ANBU that were undoubtedly in the area.

She couldn’t detect any chakra signatures, but she knew they were there. 50 meters wasn’t very wide, after all. Leaning back against the rough bark of the tree, she sighed once more as she listened in on her team's conversation.

“You’re going to be trained by granny!? Temeeeee, you gonna save us when we get an ouchy? BAHAHAHA!”

“I will end you, Dobe.”

Scintillating conversation, naturally. 

Her only consolation was that the ANBU had to listen as well. Sakura snickered at the thought of the elite of the elite, cream of the crop shinobi forced to listen to preteen arguments.Her teammates turned to her at the sound of her laughter, Naruto’s eyes shone as he bounded over to her like an energetic labradoodle. She could see Sasuke giving her the best impression he could of a murderous ice cube behind the blond.

“Sakura-Chan! Hiya! When did you get here? I didn’t see you!”

‘You’re not the only one Naruto, nobody seems to’ 

Before Sakura could muster the strength to pull herself out of the now quickly familiar feeling of bitterness and resentment to reply, a puff of smoke exploded from behind her. She whirled around, sensing her sensei’s chakra signature along with an unfamiliar one. Hatake Kakashi stood with his hands in his pockets, eyes crinkled in one of his signature eye-smiles. A dark haired, pale boy stood behind him. His muscles looked like they were frozen, mouth set in a very wide, toothy grin.

“Hello my wonderful, adorable little students! I, your amazing sensei, bring you fresh meat!”

The boy looked up to the Jounin, smile still locked in place.

“Hatake-sensei, I was unaware that we had to bring protein to this gathering. I can procure some at the local market.”  
Sakura noted his robotic way of speaking along with what appeared to be a lack of understanding for social convention as she shifted nervously, not knowing how to greet the stranger.Glancing at her teammates, she noticed she wasn’t the only one at a loss.

“Don’t worry about it Sai, it’s just an idiom! Now, time to introduce you,”

Sai turned back to them,the unnerving smile still frozen on his face.

“My cute little students, this is your new teammate, Sai.”

There was stunned silence for a moment before the blond knucklehead ninja of Team 7 started shouting his questions.

“What?! Kakashi-sensei! That robot? Seriously!?”

“Mah, Naruto, don’t be rude to your new teammate.”

Sai tilted his head to the side as he looked at the blond, inspecting him thoroughly. He nodded, almost solemnly, as he pointed a finger at the Uzumaki.

“You look pretty weak, are you even a guy? I’m going to call you Dickless.”

There were a few seconds of silence, Sakura could swear the wind stopped moving, then-

“WHAT DID THIS PASTY FUCKER JUST CALL ME!?”

All hell broke loose. 

All Sakura registered was shouting, an explosion, then the sound of a thud as the smoke cleared and she looked down from where she had taken cover, the same tree she had placed her pack under, to see her sensei sitting on her seething teammate as Sai stood calmly next to him.

“Trying to attack him certainly counts as rude, Naruto.”

Sasuke stood cooly to the side, hands in his pockets as he regarded the three shinobi in front of him. Sai looked at him, the same look of deep thought falling over his face as his head tilted to the side once more.

“Sasuke Uchiha. I believe you are what they call an Asshole.”

Sakura tried. She tried very, very hard to resist. In the end, she ended up joining Naruto’s nearly deranged sounding peals of laughter. That is, until Sai turned to her and delivered his final verdict.

“You. Ugly.”

The laughing abruptly stopped as Sakura’s eyes narrowed. This bitch. Maybe she would get to punch someone after all.

“Naruto, you hold him down, I’ll punch him. Sasuke, you make sure he doesn’t get away.”

As Team 7 started preparing their attack, fueled by righteous anger at being insulted, Kakashi sighed and rubbed between his eyes, muttering something about demon children and being too old.

“Okay, stand down. No attacking fellow Konoha shinobi. While I admire your attempt at teamwork, fratricide isn’t exactly the best motivator.”

The words were laced in typical Kakashi nonchalance, while reading his signature orange book and slouched over. Sakura dropped down from her spot on the tree, the grass cushioning her fall with a soft thud, her sandals digging into dirt as she stood from her crouch.

“Sensei, Genin cells are typically four man teams, composed of three Genin and a Jounin. Why are we getting a new teammate?”

She shot a glare towards their latest addition after she finished speaking, his only response was widening his serene smile. Kakashi snapped his book shut as he ruffled her hair, eye smile ever present.

“Thank you for asking, my cute pastel student! As you all know, Princess Sasuke over here has an entourage,”

Kakashi vaguely waved his hand in a direction somewhere to their left, presumably where the ANBU operatives were hidden in the thick leaves of the forest.

She wasn’t sure how much they liked being called an entourage, though she noted, amused, from the corner of her eye that Sasuke was none too happy about being called a princess.

“As a security measure to protect him from certain diabolical snake Sannin. As a Genin cell, especially with Chuunin exam experience, you’re going to have more missions that take you outside the village. It would be counterproductive to have Sasuke go on these missions, since it would pose a great security risk, even with the nice ANBU keeping him company. This would make you a man short, and that's where Sai comes in.”  
Sakura released a breath, realization dawning. Naturally, keeping Sasuke in the village, and under direct supervision by the Godaime was in the best interests of everyone, having him take missions that were out-of-village was an unnecessary risk that their superiors circumvented by sending another Genin. Her mind whirled as she berated herself internally for not figuring it out sooner. 

“Now then! Now that everyone is acquainted, we need to work on catching Sai up to speed with the team. I don’t think I have to tell you about how vital efficient team work is out on the field, after all. Sai, Naruto, spar for a bit, figure out each other's strengths and weaknesses. Sasuke, you’re coming with me for a second.”

Kakashi and Sasuke had begun to walk away by the time Sakura realized her Sensei neglected to give her an instruction, the feeling of being discarded swelling and churning like acid in her stomach.

“Sensei! What about me?”

Kakashi eyed her tense form from over his shoulder, his hand coming up to scratch at the back of his hand in a placating way.

“Oh, sorry about that, Sakura-Chan. Just watch Naruto and Sai, will you?”

Before she could say anything, The Hatake and Uchiha disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving only their new teammate, Naruto, Sakura, and her brewing maelstrom of fury. Her hands shook with repressed rage as her teeth grit together, nails cutting into her palms at the blatant disregard. 

Hearing the sounds of Sai and Naruto’s spar beginning, Sakura stalked off in the opposite direction, sandal clad feet angrily hitting the ground as she entered a clearing. She was breathing heavily, holding back angry tears as she stopped walking, standing in front of a tree.With an almost animalistic snarl, she pulled her arm back and punched. Again and again, till her knuckles were bloody and beaten and her anger was more of a lick of flame rather than the raging inferno it had been previously.

“Haruno-San, I’m sure that whatever that tree did to you, it’s very sorry”

The pink haired Genin whirled around, searching for the source of the deep, gravelly voice. Looking up, she recognized the familiar mask, with its intricate line work and spots. He stood on top of the very same tree she had just unleashed her fury upon, seemingly casual while reading what appeared to be a scroll. His cloak, a dark green compared to the slate grey of other ANBU, she notes, was rolled up neatly next to him.

“Panther-san, hello. I- uh- Sasuke left with Kakashi sensei.”

“I am aware, Haruno-San. Hatake-Senpai informed me beforehand.”

“Oh.”

Under the almost crushing awkwardness of the situation, Sakura almost wished she also had a mask to hide behind, shuffling awkwardly in the dirt as the masked man continued to stare at her, unrelenting. The shinobi kicked off of the tree limb, the lithe movements shadow temporarily blocking the sun from beating down on her as he executed a front flip and landed crouched in front of her. Decompressing, he reached into his cloak and pulled out a tin and some bandages.

She stared dumbly at his hands, then at his mask. Then repeated the process again till his deep amused chuckle broke her out of her state of shock.

“Don’t worry, Haruno-San, while your team seems to have no hesitation in harming Konoha Shinobi, I have no such inclinations. It’s a healing salve and regular bandages, for your wounds.”

There was a teasing lilt to his gravelly voice, and Sakura felt her cheeks heat up at the thought of the elite shinobi witnessing what she now dubbed the Sai Incident. Choking back her embarrassment, she hastily took the salve and bandages, murmuring her appreciation.

With a nod, he turned around, ready to get back to his post when a sudden shot of bravery surged through her.

“Wait, Panther-San.”

He twisted to see her, looking over his shoulder. It was reminiscent of how Kakashi looked at her no less than 10 minutes ago.

“Have you ever felt invisible? Weak? Like the whole world has already written you off and labelled you as weak and placed you in this neat little box and never given you a chance to prove otherwise? Like everyones just waiting for you to give up and-.”

She halts, abruptly. She doesn’t know where this courage is coming from. Maybe it was the faux anonymity that came from the person in front of her having a mask, like she could rant and spill her guts and it would be completely forgotten, consigned to the throes of oblivion as she never speaks to the man again. Even as she confessed her deepest insecurities to a stranger, she felt lighter, like she had been drowning and had finally lifted her head above the water and breathed in air. When the masked ninja answers, voice low, it’s almost too soft for her to hear.

“Yes, Haruno-San.”  
“W-What,”

“Yes, to all of it. Questioning yourself, having others question you, fear, doubt, It’s vital in our career. I Pity the fool of a Shinobi who says he is without fear or doubt. Have you ever heard of the phrase nanakorobi yaoki?”

“Fall seven times. Stand up eight.”

“Yes. In the Shinobi world, everyone's merit is judged off of the same basic rules. It’s a game of power, strength. It’s how it always has been. Some are born into might, with kekkei genkai or clans-”

“That’s the point, though! I’ve been set up to fail the game from the start! Everyone around me gets all these advantages, they’ve been slated to be great shinobi ever since they were born! To them, I’m nobody!”

The ANBU, now fully facing her, tilts his head up to the sky, considering. 

“Haruno-San, do not allow others, or yourself, to cage you into mediocrity,”

Sakura flinched, the words stung, but Panther did not stop.

“Aptitude, talent, all these are useless without being honed. Hard work, determination, ambition. These are what make a Shinobi truly great. You may have heard that a Shinobi is one that endures. But the truth is, a true Shinobi is one that overcomes. The second you give up the fight, that’s when you lose the game.”

There is a long silence, both ninja staring at each other. Sakura digested everything the ninja had just told her. The masked man inclined his head in her direction.

“Your teammates have finished their spar, Haruno-San. I hope you’ve found whatever it is you wanted to find. I hope you don’t continue abusing the trees, they probably don’t like it very much.”

In less than a second, he was gone. Not a trace of smoke or leaves left behind.

Sakura could hear Naruto and Sai calling out for her, voice reverberating through the forest. As she walked back in silence, her bloody hands gripped the tin and bandages tight. Even if on the outside, she seemed subdued, her mind was racing.

Haruno Sakura was now a player in the Game of Shinobi.

And it was time to rewrite the rules.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are. You. READY. XD This was a very fun chapter to write, mostly because the last couple of sentences are part of one out of 5 scenes that inspired this whole story!  
> So we got Sai on the team! and that Team 7 bonding session. Also, we got to see a bit more of Panther! and he's pushed Sakura to actually start trying to change! the whole concept of 'rewriting the rules' is going to be BIG in this story and is going to be a major part of Sakura's fighting style.  
> Nanokorobi Youkai is one of my personal favourite proverbs. It's really just kinda beautiful. I had someone tell me that they liked reading about the stuff I had to search for on Google, so here they are for this chapter! : 1. Are Labradoodles real?  
> 2\. Punching trees bad?  
> Not a lot, but there were only really two major scenes, So XD  
> Thank you to everyone that gave a kudos, and a big big big thank you to Pumpkin, Kagame, Sarella, Northern, Clack, Fanonymous, vindoletta, knightly,hitched and hostile for leaving reviews! I really appreciate them!!  
> Next chapters going to be up by Tuesday! hope everyone has a great day![COUGHS] IWONDERWHYSAKURAADMITTEDALLTHATSTUFFTOPANTHERUNPROMPTED [COUGHS] <3 MW


	4. The one with the leeches!

Belatedly, Sakura realizes that dramatically vowing to have a major-character-in-an-action-novel-esque training sequence in order to prove that you’re the ultimate Shinobi to all those who dared to doubt you while simultaneously attempting to prove that very same Shinobi system as flawed is, well, easier said than done.

This epiphany only sets in when she’s waist deep in the shallow pools by the Naka river, after another failed attempt at a B-rank water jutsu. It’s been two months since the Konoha Crush, three weeks after she stopped Sasuke’s defection attempt, and another four days since her conversation with Panther and a weak part of her considers giving up. It whispers in her ear, a near constant purr of _‘she couldn’t do this. Why even try? for acknowledgment that you know they’ll never give you?’_. Her breath comes in shallow pants as exhaustion scrapes against her bones and cold water bites at her skin. Her chakra coils scream at her, never having felt this strained as she tells the voice to _shut the fuck up_ and raises shaky hands to form now familliar hand seals once more, _just one more_. 

When she feels the water give in, her chakra fluidly coaxing the liquid to bend to her will as it sprung up from the water pool and shot at the rock formation next to the pond, leaving a gaping hole in the center of the boulder, Sakura throws her hands up in unbridled joy. Her nearly deranged, fatigued tinged laughter almost drowned out by the rushing sounds of the Naka River.

Her muscles ache, her bruises are bone-deep from the physical conditioning she’s been doing daily and she’s fairly sure she’s seeing spots of black form in her vision from the chakra exhaustion but for those short couple of minutes, she’s joy, excitement, satisfaction and elation personified.

Then the spots she was seeing floating around take over as her emerald eyes roll into the back of her head and she collapses into the water, her last thought being that she might be late for team practice that morning.

⋅•⦽•⋅

Sakura wakes to the sun beaming down on her face and the smell of warm Udon and - her eyebrows furrow a bit as she tries to place what the sweet scent was - Yokan sweets. She blearily opens one eye then immediately shuts it again when she sees porcelain and spots hovering above her.

“Haruno-San, I’m not sure how to tell you this but I don’t think you learn Suiton techniques by drowning yourself.”

Sakura groans as she pushes herself off of the ground -It seems Panther moved her- and against a rock, the same one she had destroyed with her water Jutsu. She judges by the position of the sun in the sky that it must be an hour or two since she collapsed. Her voice cracks when she tries to speak, shaky and rough.

“Hello, Panther-San. Fancy seeing you over at this watering hole, huh?”

Later, when she’s not under the hazy effect of post-chakra-exhaustion, she’ll cringe at that attempt at humour. But right now, all she’s thinking is _panthers_ and _panthers drink at watering holes_ and she thinks she’s a goddamn _comedian_.

Panther huffs, and as Sakura’s eyes drift over his form to the bags he was holding, he sits down next to her. He then pushes the first paper bag, larger and bulkier than the other one, into her arms.

“If you’re well enough to make terrible jokes, then you’re well enough to eat.”

Sakura sniffs at the bag, before opening it and seeing a large serving of Udon in a to-go cup.The miso broth still warm, tendrils of steam wafting from the bag as her mouth waters and her stomach kindly reminds her that she hasn’t eaten since dinner - about thirteen hours ago.

“For me, Panther-San?”

The ANBU Shinobi nods, folding his arms and resting them on his thighs.

“Hōtō Udon, noodles and squash along with potatoes, carrots and taro roots.It’s good for recovering chakra. It’s from Yamanashi-San in the western district.”

Sakura separates the disposable chopsticks included in the bag, happily murmuring her gratitude as she digs into the noodles and broth.

“How did you find me, Panther-San? I wasn’t supposed to be at practice for another four hours.”

“You were supposed to be at your training grounds _two hours ago_ , Haruno-San.”

She squints up at the sky, still shoving noodles into her mouth.

“It’s only around 9 AM”

“Indeed. Note that Team 7 is supposed to rendezvous at 7 AM.”

“Yes, but it’s a universally acknowledged fact that SKHT, otherwise known as Standard Kakashi Hatake Time, runs five hours later than everyone else. four, on a good day.”

Panther’s laugh is deep and mellow, and she could see his shoulders following the movement.

“I suppose trying to lecture one of Kakashi-senpai’s students about the virtue of punctuality in a Shinobi is a lost cause then. At least you weren’t using the time to slack off,”

The last sentence was said with a wave toward the boulder the two Shinobi were leaning against, the glinting of metal plating on his glove slightly dulled by the scratches and grooves in the piece of armour.

The hole in the large rock was fairly big and pretty much perfectly circular, the diameter about the size of Sakura’s thigh.

“You know, Haruno-San, there are places in the capital where this could pass off as abstract art.”

“You wound me, ANBU-San. Do you find my artistic expression to be lacking? I worked very hard on it.”

“Ah, yes, of course, my sincerest apologies. I was unaware I was in the presence of such a visionary. Please, enlighten me.”

Sakura re-adjusts her legs, grin wide as she put on the air of a snooty artist.

“The rock symbolizes society-”

The older Shinobi lets out a snort, then raises his hands placatingly as Sakura shoots him a look, still in the middle of her performance.

“And how rigid it is with its laws and traditions. The space in the middle, perfectly circular, reflects the circle of life-”

This time it’s a full-on, belly laugh from her audience and her lips quirk up a bit, unable to hide her amusement.

“And how it is an endless cycle. Life, then Death. Again and again. The emptiness inside the circle showcases the emptiness one finds when one tries to reject society and it’s standing principles-”  
“Profound.”

“ _Because_ knowing is something particular to the soul. To know is to understand and the question is already answered in its asking.”

The Kunoichi barely holds it together until the end, dissolving into a fit of giggles as the two laugh almost manically at their mutual bastardization of the contemporary artists typically found deep in the heart of the capital of Fire Country. 

The two sit together in comfortable silence as she finishes her Udon, mind mulling over her new technique and how she could incorporate it into combat. At the rate she was burning through her chakra, implementing Ninjutsu into her fighting style was going to be finicky at best, her chakra pools simply weren’t large enough to facilitate a full-on Ninjutsu battle. 

She makes a mental note to work on increasing her reserves, along with her knowledge about Chakra as a whole. The bookworm part of her found it almost disturbing that when she first started training Ninjutsu no more than a week ago, there were a myriad of questions she didn’t know the answer to about Chakra, one of the most fundamental aspects of being a Shinobi.

The Genin bit into a piece of Yokan, the dessert in the smaller bag the ANBU was carrying, closing her eyes as the sweet taste filled her mouth. Panther turned to her, his tone firm.

“Haruno-San, I must implore you to be careful next time you train. Had I not been here to remove you from the water after you collapsed, you could have drowned. Chakra exhaustion is a very real threat in our field.”

Sakura bows her head, feeling ashamed at the reprimand. Her hands wrung together in nervousness and her throat felt dry, not knowing what to say. The sweet treat in her mouth felt tasteless and she forced herself to swallow. When he didn’t receive a response, Panther sighed and continued in a decidedly more light-hearted tone.

“You were also being assaulted by about a dozen leeches, by the way. Luckily I was here to heroically fend them off for you, and I don’t even receive a thank yo-”

“Lee-leeches?!”

Sakura chokes, shuddering as she looked herself over for bite marks. Facts ran through her head, of potential death from blood loss and infection and how many it would have taken to kill her and how _one might have contained some kind of flesh-eating bacteria_ \- 

The ANBU laughs, offering her a hand to stand up as she frantically squashes one of the vampire worms close to her supply pack under her foot, repressing her shudders. 

“I think it’s time for you to go meet up with your team, Haruno-San.”

Thick mist, almost more like smoke, suddenly surrounds them. The dense haze reminded her of the Demon of the Mist and her first ever C Rank, the fateful mission that ended up a lot better than her Team could have hoped for. As the fog recedes, she realizes that she’s at the entrance of Training Ground 3, Panther nowhere in sight. 

She jogs to her team’s regular meeting spot, expecting to see three Genin and not her teacher. When she sees the familiar head of spiky silver hair, she freezes. The one time she was late. It seemed like she arrived only seconds after him. The Jounin snapped his copy of Icha-Icha shut, placing his hands in his pockets.

“You’re late, Sakura-Chan.”

The irony wasn’t lost on her.

“I-I’m very sorry, Kakashi-Sensei!”

The silver-haired man gave one of his signature eye-smiles.

“Mah, Sakura-Chan, don’t worry about it! Just remember that punctuality is a virtue!”

Sakura gapes. The _audacity_ of this man. She sees that Naruto is almost dying trying not to laugh, Sasuke just shoots a smirk at her and Sai has one of his trademark creepy grins on his face. If she tries hard enough, she can probably hear some of the ANBU laughing at her misery.

“Now then! Here are the missions you need to get done by this afternoon! My ninken will supervise you while I attend the Jounin meeting that started an hour ago. Bye!”

He disappears in a puff of smoke, and the second the last of the smoke clears, Naruto bursts out laughing.

“Man, Sakura-chan, you should have seen the look on your face! Priceless!”

Sakura rolls her eyes heavenward, trying to think of what she might have done in her past life to merit these idiots being her teammates.

“Hn. Let’s get on with the mission.”

They spend the rest of the day delivering groceries, pasting advertisements to walls and catching the canine version of Tora the cat, Okami. It’s only at the end of the day when they’re collecting their mission pay and fatigued seems to be their permanent state of being when Sai decides to extend her suffering.

“Oi, Ugly, you’ve had a dead leech or slug in your hair the entire day. Is it a fashion trend amongst prepubescent girls to have segmented parasitic worms in their hair?”

She imagines that the boulder is his pasty face next time she practices her Suiton jutsu and is deeply satisfied when the half-ton rock explodes into tiny bits of rock and dirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Coughs) I totally didn't end up accidentally saving this as a draft instead of actually posting it. no. that totally didn't happen. So! New chapter! we get to see a little bit of where Sakura is going and her relationships with others. I'm gonna be very honest here lol, one of the main reasons the pace seems a bit slow is because I'm trying to settle on how to introduce Sakura's fighting style without it seeming completely out of the blue, so that'll take a little bit of build-up (and she needs to be a walking talking textbook on Chakra control and theory and application) ALSO. I have to do like, a ton of research for it that I didn't really expect?? like stuff about molecular structures and chemical reactions and the like. I'm a proud nerd, so I do genuinely enjoy reading about this kind of stuff, but damn, it's taking me a while to sludge through XD  
> The next 3 chapters will be mostly similar to this, team 7 bonding with Sakura, Panther bonding with Sakura, developing her skills, maybeaconfrontationwithKakashiabouthowhe'saterribleteacher, and then Team 7 minus princess Sasuke get to go on a MISSION! :D  
> Thank you to Caelena, Sarella, themediocrewriter,Clack, Fanonymous, Vindoletta, Pumpkin,Kagame,Hostile, Sadermerkki, knightly and pink potato for reviewing! and to everyone for the Kudos! I really appreciate the support and each review I get motivates me more to write ^^
> 
> NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE UP BY THURSDAY! I hope everyone has a wonderful week! <3 MW  
> P.S. I'll be writing one shots very soon! If anyone has a prompt they'd like me to try, I'd happily give it a shot! [Hah, get it? Because one SHOT? Ill show myself out 😂💓]


	5. Seven Percent

A branch snaps in the darkness of the forest, three kunai launching in its direction instantaneously, sharpened steel meeting nothing but air and the remnant smoke of a substitution Jutsu as it carved into the trunk of the tree. Shadows, elongated by the dim light of the woods, engulfs Sakura’s still form. Crouched low to the ground, one hand holding a kunai and another poised for a hand seal, she listens. Her chakra floods her ears, magnifying the sounds of the forest as she keeps her knees locked, ready to spring to action when-

A rush of air to her left, then- an explosion. Her palms touch the muddy ground for a split second as she backflips to avoid the onslaught of kicks from her attacker. Pressing his advantage during the haze of the smoke from the explosion, the Shinobi hurls two shuriken towards her neck and one to her thigh as he reaches for his blade. Sakura deflects the ones sailing to her jugular as she dodges to the side, evading the other one. Her ears still ringing from the explosion, her fingers deftly make the hand seals for two earth clones as she takes to the trees to get to higher ground. Her opponent pursues as he cuts through the clones, but not before one places an exploding tag at his ankle.

_“Shit-”_

The detonation dislodges molecules of dust and several chunks of Earth, the blade-wielding ninja disappearing in a puff of smoke as Sakura whirls just in time to deflect the Chokuto slashing down at her, she sees the opening in his left flank and drops down to kick his legs out from under him as he tries to align his sword for another strike.

His legs give out and she springs back up again, delivering several hits to his abdomen and solar plexus in quick succession. Her final, sweeping axe kick to his chest makes him sail down to the forest floor.

He gasps out in pain as he rolls backwards onto one knee, blade still gripped in his hands as he lunges forwards and delivers a vicious vertical slice that cuts her from her upper thigh to just under her ribs, the pain steals the breath from her lungs and momentarily clouds her vision but before he manages to prepare another attack, Sakura grips his wrist with her bloodied fingers and pitches him forward, twisting around him as her kunai meets the delicate skin of his throat and her knee settles heavily against his lower back. Breathing heavily, she takes the point of her elbow and jabs it into the middle of his shoulders and she _digs it in_. His arm drops the blade and hits the ground repeatedly, gasping for air.

“Yield! _yield! Sakura-Chan, I yield!_ ”

The pink-haired girl huffs as she releases him, hands immediately occupied with putting pressure onto her own wounds as she tiredly rolls over and lays on the grass next to the Shinobi. Her hair splays around her head and grits her teeth to fight off the pain as the nin next to her groans and rolls over so his back is to the forest floor. She breathes in deeply, savouring the oxygen in her lungs and trying to use it as a way to detract from the pain as she exhales slowly, repeating the process twice more. She steels herself to talk through the cloud of agony her side was experiencing.

“Naruto, whoever the hell decided you needed a sword is a _monster._ ”

The response she got back was booming laughter, although stilted with pain. Her blond teammate, who randomly took an interest in Kenjutsu somewhere these past four months, brought his well-loved blade to eye-level. He stared at the reflection of his blue eyes in the glint of the steel for a few moments before turning his eyes to her green ones. His sunny smile morphed quickly into worry as he looked her over, noting the amount of blood staining her top.

“Holy shit, Sakura-chan, I’m so sorry! Cho-Cho's reach is a bit farther than the tanto I had before, and I haven’t totally adjusted, I didn’t mean to-”

Sakura raises a hand to stop him, wincing as the movement tugged at her new injury. Naruto’s chokuto, lovingly named _Cho-Cho_ by her blond teammate, made a parallel cut against her torso and while it wasn’t very deep, it basically flayed her side.

“Don’t worry about it Naruto, it’s just a part of sparring. It’ll be healed in no time,”

She shoots a smile at her teammate, placing her hands beneath her back as she slowly pulled herself into a sitting position, her body protesting at the movement.

“Plus, I can always get Princess Sasuke to heal me!”

“Hn. I don’t know why I bother healing you, idiots.”

The voice came from their right, two sets of footsteps trampling on leaves rang out as the remaining two Genin of Team 7 appeared from the thick undergrowth. Sai was nursing what looked to be a broken arm in a jerry-rigged splint, while Sasuke’s arm and face were adorned by several fresh bruises. Sakura gathered that their spar ended before her and Naruto’s.

The Uchiha strode over and crouched in front of the two Genin on the ground, obsidian eyes assessing them for damage, sharpening at the cut at her side.

At some point during their team gatherings, Sasuke had stopped actively engaging in spars and started hanging back and off to the side, hands glowing green as he practiced resuscitating fish with chakra. At first, Naruto had poked fun at him for not fighting and spending all his time with ‘smelly seafood’ before realizing that the Uchiha was so engrossed in his task that he didn’t register a single one of the blonds words. Each failed ‘patient’ resulted in the smell of freshly cooked fish wafting through the training grounds, and Sakura fondly remembered how for two months, her team basically subsisted off of Fresh Fried Fish a la Sasuke Uchiha. 

She recalled Sasuke’s frustration at not understanding the mystical palm technique, each day seemingly bringing nothing but failure for two straight months. She had snickered a bit behind his back at first, the thought of the Great Uchiha Sasuke finally finding something he was bad at and experiencing the same frustration she, and a lot of other supposed ‘average’ Shinobi felt, was hilarious. Then the smug amusement slowly morphed into pity as she saw the frustration in his eyes grow deeper each day. When the good samaritan part of her caved in and she offered to help with his chakra control, he threw her a look of pure acid and stomped out of the training grounds, his bucket of fish in hand.

To be offered help from the girl who had improved in leaps and bounds over those same months when he had done nothing but failed, Sakura realized he must have felt insulted and, burying the small part of her that felt unbridled glee at making the **oh so special Uchiha-Sama feel inadequate, ha!** She tracked him down that day and spent an hour dodging the kunai he threw in an attempt to get her to go away as she tried to explain everything she knew about and learned in the two months since she began studying chakra theory and control.

When she plucked a kunai out of the air as it hurtled towards her and slashed through her left palm with it, the volley of projectiles stopped. Her right palm glowed a light teal as she placed it over her wound, coming away a minute later with bloody, but otherwise unblemished skin, a hand had grabbed her wrist. Looking up into red eyes, Sasuke’s whisper of _‘teach me’_ had felt like a scream in the stillness of the Uchiha compound.

A week after, Sasuke was carefully placing his first-ever successful mystical palm technique patient in one of the gurgling streams that flowed through their training grounds, an offshoot of the Naka River. There was a triumph in his eyes as Team 7 celebrated at Ichiraku’s that night, and Sakura felt her heart flutter at how for the first time, her team of dysfunctional misfits who, on paper, shouldn’t have worked, felt like family.

Until Sai, in all his deadpan, grinning glory, kindly informed everyone that the fish that Sasuke was practicing with was Haddock fish and that they would most certainly be dead by now since they can’t live in freshwater. Sasuke punched him through a fruit stand.

From then on, ‘Haddock’ joined the ranks of ‘Leeches’ and became an inside joke in the team whenever someone fucked up. 

Now, seven weeks later, the Uchiha crouched next to her, palms glowing a dark forest green and eyebrows furrowed as he blocked off capillaries to staunch the bleeding and stitched together her skin.His cool chakra gave her side a pleasant numbness.

“Naruto, you _Idiot_ , your swing was three centimetres off from piercing her peritoneum.”

“Shut up, Teme! I already said sorry. And I have no idea what that even means!”

“It _means_ , idiot, that I wouldn’t have been able to heal her since I haven’t been allowed to assist on lacerated peritoneal surgeries and wouldn’t be able to repair her internal abdomen if she herniated! ”

While the concept of using more than one sentence in a conversation was relatively new to Sasuke, Team 7 quickly realized that he spoke the most when he was talking about medicine and medical techniques. While the medical jargon sometimes made their head spin, they still found it amusing to bring up medical topics just to get the last Uchiha to talk.

“I didn’t even understand half of what you just said, nerd!”

Sasuke huffs as he turns back to Sakura, the bulk of his healing appearing to be done as he starts stitching together the last layers of skin.

“You three would be dead if I weren’t a medic!”

“While I am unsure if Asshole’s statement is correct, teams with medical ninja do statistically have a lower probability of fatality.”

Sai lets out a chuckle as he sits down next to Naruto and joins the conversation, careful not to jostle his arm. Naruto turns to him and squints, looking over his arm. Noticing his teammates questioning look, Sai gave a light shrug.

“Asshole punched me through a tree.”

“Yeah, I figured, with him picking up Baa-Chans unhealthy punching habits. What gives with the splint, though? Why couldn’t he just have healed you?”

Sasuke grunts out a reply, still focused on healing her side.

“I stimulated the healing process but it's better to allow skeletal injuries to heal by themselves so that the regeneration of blood cells that comes from the bone marrow being healed can calibrate to the body, otherwise it weakens the lymphatic system.”

Naruto sighs, folding his hands under his head as he lazily stares at Sasuke’s glowing hands. Sakura chuckles as she looks him over.

“I guess Naruto’s just going to pretend he understood that,”

“Hey!”

“That statistic about teams with medic nins is pretty interesting, though. Why not just have a medic on each team?”

“Medic-nins only make up about seven percent of the Konoha Shinobi population, so they have to be allocated very carefully. I believe the teams themselves have to be considered carefully as well. Team 7 has a pretty well-rounded skill set of close-range, long-distance and mid-distance fighters, So someone like Asshole, even with his deplorable bedside manner, can focus on long-distance techniques with his Genjutsu and heal after the confrontation is over.”

“It’s not just that,” Sasuke cuts in, shooting a glare at Sai.

“Medical Ninjutsu requires extensive knowledge of anatomy and several years worth of training, along with chakra control in the 85th percentile and above,”

Sasuke hesitates, looking up at Sakura from where he was finishing up his healing. Black meets green as Sasuke speaks.

“You could be a medic-nin, Sakura.”

Naruto bursts out laughing, immediately wincing as he was reminded where the pink-haired girl kicked him in the chest. Coughing, he tried to swat off the Uchiha when he reached over with a glowing green palm to heal his bone bruises. The black-haired boy simply rolled his eyes and when the blond relented, continued his work.

“Sakura-chan as a _medic?_ Seriously?”

Sai and Sakura joined in on the laughter, minds unable to conjure up the pink-haired girl as a medic. Sasuke’s smirk was small but present.

“I’m fairly sure Ugly would trap her patients in a water cage if they so much as bled the wrong way.”

“Or bury them with an Earth Jutsu for not taking their medicine!”

Sakura wiped mirthful tears from her eyes, shoulders shaking with laughter.

“Yeah, no, definitely not for me!”

While Sakura did have an aptitude for Medical Ninjutsu, and indeed managed to both execute and teach Sasuke the Mystical Palm Technique, it was mostly a result of her extensive research into Chakra Theory and its applications coupled with her natural talent for chakra control. While Iryo-Ninjutsu was definitely an option for her, she couldn’t see herself as a medic. Not while her body longed for the rush of elemental chakra coursing through her coils, not while she felt like she had barely brushed the surface of how far Chakra could be utilized and honed for combat.

Four months ago, Sakura had begun training with single-minded ferocity, throwing herself at physical conditioning and spending hours on end scrutinizing texts about Chakra, it’s origins and uses, how it formed and what happened to it after death, each question answered unearthed a hundred more and she absorbed the information like a sponge. Sakura spent what felt like every waking moment training, and while it was true that her strength now was almost incomparable to four months ago, she knew, from an objective standpoint, it was also because what she was four months ago wasn’t very much. It’s not hard to improve rapidly when you start off with nothing. 

Objectivity aside, she was damned proud of what she had become.

She had to spend months catching up to her teammates, fighting tooth and nail each step of the way. Now, she had to spend _years_ to surpass them. And Sakura, the little pink-haired girl who nobody had really believed in, who just wanted a chance, was ready.

_After all, she was just getting started._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this is late!! It's been a crazy week! My piano broke and I had to call like 6 guys to come take it to the repair shop and my pomeranian just started attacking one of the guy's shoes skksks I'm guessing it's because it had fur on it and maybe looked like a squirrel or something?? I don't really know, but that was a mess and a half. Oh, and my niece was born two days ago, so that's really cool! and I have to bring my dad to the airport today since he's going back home to Europe for a little while. 
> 
> Anyways! boring personal life aside XD
> 
> I wanted to preface this by saying I feel like I ended the chapter pretty weak and I feel kind bad about that D: this chapter was supposed to have like four more scenes but that would have been like 12 whole pages and it was just getting too long, I had to cut it and it ended kind of weirdly. So to make up for that and how late I was, y'all are getting double chapters on Wednesday and Friday!
> 
> So this is set three months and three weeks after the last chapter! Naruto has some handy dandy stabby pointy skills and we get a look into Sasuke's new life as a medic, Sai's a little shit like always. I'm putting a major emphasis on relationships in this fic so I hope people don't mind that it's not always about Sakura!
> 
> speaking of Sakura, she's very close to developing some really cool skills, and we're thisclose to getting a taste of the reason why this was tagged a BAMF Sakura fic. I'm sorry if it feels like it's too fast what with the time skip and all, but we'll be backtracking sometime soon to get a look at how life was like for her training during those four months!
> 
> OH AND THAT WAS MY FIRST EVER FIGHT SCENE :D I really enjoyed writing it, so I hope y'all liked it, too!  
> thanks to Dogs4Fun, galaxy, pumpkin, nightly, Fanonymous, hostile, Vindoletta, Caelena, Astro and Moonie for leaving reviews!! each one I get makes the chapters come just a little bit faster!
> 
> PS: I'm working on three one-shots as of this moment, all Sakura-centric (coughs, Star Trek AU, timetravel, Hero AU) but I would really appreciate it if y'all could send in any prompts you might have, I think it'd be really fun! I'm at Waffle!#4469 on Discord and @Majestician on Tumblr!


	6. Equilibrium I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [coughs]readtheendnotes[coughs]

“Get up, Haruno.”

Her body was _screaming_.

“ _Get up_ , Haruno.”

Sakura felt the blood rushing out of her ears trickle down her arms onto the dewy grass under her. The sun that might have typically been described as bright and happy felt scalding as it glared down at her abraded wounds.

Her eyes were blurry and unfocused. Her head pounded against her skull. She tries to lift a finger, only to discover that the searing pain from her side came from what felt like seven fingers being snapped in two. Maybe eight. Eight fingers snapped in two, not seven fingers snapped in eight. That would probably suck. She felt the acidic burn of bile rising in her throat and promptly threw up onto the grass, some of it catching her matted hair. The sudden movement of her shoulders, in her effort to expel today’s Breakfast and stomach acid, pulled at the lacerations on her chest and arms.

How many wounds did she have, anyway? The pain melted together into a giant ball of agony, not starting or ending anywhere but clawing at her soul with fiery vengeance all the same, making her want to roll up into a bowl and cry. Making her _hurt_.

“ _Get. Up. Haruno._ ”

She could hear something. Distorted. Like the crackling of a fire, or heavy boots on gravel, then something sharp clanging against stone. Or maybe that was what pain, in its purest form, sounded like. Her eyes could see cloudy images, a flash of cool green and a stark white, something long and shiny and sharp. Her head hurt. Everything hurt. Was this what dying felt like?

She swallows. Her mouth tasted like acid, bitter and acrid against the flat of her tongue. The taste of something metallic, blood? 

She looks up at the sky again. It was a nice blue, reminded her of Naruto’s eyes. Or was it more like Ino’s? She was never very good at telling similar shades of colour apart, apparently got it from her dad. She stares at the sun, that giant ball of fire in the sky, just hanging there without a care in the world. She liked the sun. Even as it burned her retinas, it was warm and bright and reminded her of the good things in the world.

There was a crunch next to her head. Her green eyes settle on black sandals. Distantly, she notes that it's in a puddle of blood and oh, yeah, that’s probably her blood. The sandals still, and stop in front of her face. She squints, looking at the person's toes. She thinks ninja sandals are very poorly designed. Why have open toes when you have a huge chance of getting nicked by some random sharp pointy stabby thing? It didn’t make sense. She made a mental note to get herself some nice, closed-toe boots. Reinforced toe bits, too. Did they even make those? She doesn’t know. But she’ll probably find out when she’s not dying. And under the effects of a severe concussion. Preferably in that order.

“ **Get up, Haruno.** ”

Something in her head shrieks at her, compels her body to get the hell up and move- her world spins for a second, distorting into colours and nearly calling forth a fresh batch of bile as she rolls to the side and stumbles onto her knees. The blade of a tanto pierces into the dirt where her head was less than a second ago. She clumsily manages to stand up and uses a tree to support her weight as her vision spins before sharpening on the large green blob, porcelain mask and spots coming into focus. She opens her mouth to speak then winces at the pungent smell that comes out.

“Listen, Spots, I think I’m about to fucking _die._ ”

Panther, now dubbed _Spots_ via her very concussed brain, huffs and sheathes his tanto after tugging it from the soil where her very dead corpse would have been.

“Don’t be so dramatic. You asked me to help you, right?”

“Yeah, before I found out you were the sparring partner from _hell!_ ”

“ _You told me not to hold back!_ ”

“You almost stabbed me! In the _skull!_ ”

“That’s me not holding back! And I would have stopped the blade if you hadn’t rolled away like a drunk armadillo!”

“ _Did you just compare me being concussed to a drunk armadillo?_ ”

Panther laughs, walking back to the lip of the river where the rock she had mutilated with her first ever water Jutsu stood.

“You weren’t so bad this time around, Haruno.”

“Right. He says, right after wiping the floor with me. Several times.”

“Hey now. Eating dirt is a rite of passage in Shinobi training.”

The Shinobi unclips his forest green cloak and sets it down in the shade cast by the stone. Deep violet eyes watch her as she ambles over to the rock, each movement seemingly unleashing another torrent of pain as she drags her feet through silt and mud before collapsing in a pile of limbs at the base of the boulder.

There’s a pause, then a snort from the older Shinobi.

“Dignified.”

“Shut up. Death would be a mercy right now. _‘If you can breathe, you can fight’_ my ass.”

There’s a shuffling sound above her as the ANBU settles on top of the boulder, the steel of his shin guards scraping against stone as he sits cross-legged in a small patch of sunlight. 

“Whining aside, Haruno, where do you think you went wrong?”

“You mean, aside from asking you for help?”

There was a deep chuckle from above her, one she quickly became familiar with after close to five months of on again off again training with the older man.

“Yes, aside from that. Give me the play-by-play, scrutinize where and when you went wrong, where and when you could have done better. Start from the beginning.”

Sakura sighs as she feels something plonk on top of her head. Cold beads of condensation trickle down her scalp then down her face. Enjoying the cooling sensation of the water bottle Panther had just given her, she closes her eyes and mulls over the events of the week that led up to this moment.

⋅•⦽•⋅

“I need to get better at taijutsu, Panther-San.”

A solitary amethyst eye blinks open as the ANBU agent peers at the pinkette from where he laid with his hands behind his head. What appeared to be either a very large, yellow squirrel or a small bushy-tailed golden racoon popped it’s head from the Shinobi’s deep green cloak. It’s beady eyes stared at Sakura and for a second, she felt as if the animal was assessing her.

“You need to get better at a lot of things, Haruno.”

The jab was concluded by the ANBU operative closing his eyes and leaning back against the tree once more. Sakura swore that she could hear high-pitched tittering from his cloak. 

“Is that... a _squirrel?_ ”

The laughter abruptly stopped, before the yellow-haired animal’s head popped out and glared daggers at the Genin below it. Sakura’s mouth gapes as the rodent starts talking, it’s bushy tail puffed up.

“How _dare_ you compare me to those nut munching bastards, human!”

Panther sits up from his position in the tree, grumbling all the while the enraged rodent puffed up it’s cheeks and continued it’s tirade. Sakura was really regretting getting up from bed that day.

“Look at what you’ve gone and done now, Haruno.”

If Sakura were to be completely honest, she had absolutely no idea. 

“I am Midori no Daichi, foolish human! This Midori hails from a long line of great and noble marmots who have served as retainers for many venerable Samurai! Please tell your student this, Shichi-Sama!”

“That's quite enough, Midori-Chan.”

The marmot squeaked and scurried back into her master’s cloak. Confused emerald eyes met violet as Panther sighed. His feet met the ground after a tight front-flip from the branch, landing with-in arms reach of Sakura.

“This is Midori, Haruno. She’s my animal summon.”

Sakura nodded mutely, she had come to that conclusion herself seconds after the rodent started speaking. Hesitating, she looked at the small lump the Shinobi had at the front of his cloak, then bowed.

“It’s nice to meet you, Midori-San. I’m sorry if I’ve caused you offense.”

The yellow tinged rodent appeared once more at the base of her masters neck, cheeks puffed up but tail noticeably less bristled.

“You are forgiven, wight. Never compare This Midori or This Midori’s folk to those scatterbrained fools again.”

When Sakura unfurled herself, her eyes met approving indigo ones. 

“Wight?”

The Shinobi shrugged as the creature scurried to his left shoulder, bushy tail curling around the nape of his neck.

“It’s a rather...archaic way to say human. The Marmot’s have a great deal of respect for the old tradition.”

“My folk have served as retainers for the Master's family for centuries! as such, This Midori values decorum and honor!”

The porcelain masked man shifted, reaching into one of the pouches attached to his waist and pulling out a small satchel. 

“Midori-Chan. You know the rules.”

Midori’s whiskers twitched as she hid her face in the junction between the Shinobi’s neck and shoulder.

“Y-Yes. Master! Please forgive This Midori for speaking out of turn! It shall not happen again!”

The ANBU sighs as he pats the rodent’s head and scratches at it’s ears.

“That’s okay, Midori-Chan. Please just refrain from speaking of my personal life while I am on duty. Here, go and sun yourself by the river for a while.”

He hands off the satchel to Midori, Sakura peers into the small bag to see that it’s filled to the brim with almonds. Squealing in delight, the Marmot grabs the bag and scurries off to the riverbank, presumably to find a patch of sunlight to warm herself. Her happy ‘Thank you, Master!’ floats through the wind as the two Shinobi are left alone in the clearing. Turning to face her, Panther speaks.

“So. Your Taijutsu is abysmal.”

Sakura felt her eye twitch.

“Well. I’m not sure I’d use that exact word, but yes, I believe it can be optimized for my fighting style.”

Panther tilts his head, the sunlight streaming in through the leaves making the polished stone of his mask glint.

“You mean to mix your Ninjutsu with Taijutsu?”

“Yes, along with some research I’ve been doing about Chakra Theory and manipulation.”

“Ah yes, that thing that you’ve been so secretive about. I’m fairly sure you’ve checked out every single book at the library about it. The Chuunin manning the library desks seem to think you’re trying to become one with the scrolls.”

Sakura snorts, but her hand subconsciously reaches down inside her pouch. The pads of her fingers feel the frayed edges of ‘Assessing Characteristics of Chakra in Nanoparticles of Elemental Ninjutsu, Medical Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Kekkei Genkai: An Analysis By Senju Tobirama’ She winces internally at how that title would probably have her blond teammate dead asleep by the the first comma.

Many Shinobi thought Chakra to be a completed science, so to speak. Why bother researching it when you already know what it can do? When you can be spending time learning A- Rank Ninjutsu and Genjutsu? Shinobi clans had spent hundreds upon hundreds of years with their gift of Chakra and thought they had already wrung the well dry of all of it’s knowledge, choosing instead to stay where they were most comfortable and not pursue knowledge on something they perceived would be fruitless. But Sakura took one look at Chakra, and how it could be honed, weaponized, and she saw it for what it really was.

 _Revolutionary._

Ideas swirled in her head, how to maximize one’s Chakra reserves, how to execute techniques with the most precise amount of Chakra necessary. Perhaps even how to execute techniques without Chakra, at all. Each day spent scrutinizing a scroll, breaking it down and studiously assessing how the information could aid her in battle felt like a step closer in the right direction, like she was on the cusp of something huge but just had a few hurdles left to leap. 

Sakura removed her hand from her pouch, clearing her mind as she looked straight up into violet eyes.

“Please, teach me what you know about Nintaijutsu.”

The two Shinobi stared at each other and for a split second, Sakura felt as if she had made a huge mistake. Misjudged how deep her friendship was with the ANBU operative. In that moment she became very aware that he didn’t owe her anything. Not the food or medicine he had given to her everytime she had collapsed from training all those months since their conversation a week after she stopped Sasuke’s defection. Not the scrolls he leant her about techniques that were above her rank. Not even the laughs he gave everytime she sassed her teammates or gave a sarcastic comment. For a second, she was back to square one, all self-loathing and fragile, insecure Sakura clawing its way to the surface as-

“I thought you were occasionally training with Gai and his team? I know that your taijutsu has advanced greatly since training with them. Uzumaki-San even picked up kenjutsu from that girl who gave him a sword.”

Sakura felt herself suddenly dragged out of her pit of resentment, surprised by the ANBU’s question.

“Tenten. That was Tenten. She taught Naruto how to use swords and gave him a Chokuto a week ago. I think that’s why he named it Cho-Cho, because it reminds him of Tentens name. I’m almost a hundred percent sure he has a crush on her-”

Sakura stopped herself before she could run her mouth off more than that. She shuffled awkwardly in the dirt as the Shinobi in front of her chortled with mirth.

“It’s okay, Haruno. People tend to tell me these things.”

There was a beat of silence, not enough for Sakura to mull over what the older Shinobi had just said before-

“How about Hatake-Senpai? As your Jounin sensei, you have a right to ask him to teach you about any supplementary skills you would like to learn.”

Sakura blinked. A _right?_ It sure didn’t feel like she had a right to receive training when Kakashi-Sensei spent an entire month only training Sasuke for the Chunin exams, or set aside special training time and regimes for Sasuke until he ‘came back from medic training’. It didn’t feel like she, or any of her other teammates had the _right_ whenever he blatantly disregarded them in favour of teaching Sasuke about the Sharingan, or how to to improve his evasion skill using said Sharingan.

The pinkette grit her teeth, hands clenching into tight fists as she fought off the sudden and almost overwhelming sense of resentment and hostility against her black-haired teammate and Kakashi. She had spent months training, waking up before the sun rose and only sleeping far, far after it had set. She had been doing so well, pushing against all odds and improving herself even as the spiteful voice in her head remained, reminding her of what she was up against, of what put her in this situation in the first place. Unclenching her jaw, she locked eyes with the older Shinobi.

“I don’t think you need to be an ANBU operative to figure out that Kakashi-Sensei doesn’t exactly give us the opportunity to try, Panther-San.”

There was silence as Panther regarded her. She wanted, desperately, to pull at a lock of her hair, at one of the fly-aways that crowned her head as the silence stretched.

“If you believe that Hatake-Senpai favours Uchiha-San, that he cares more about his training then yours,”

She stood stock still in front of the Shinobi, fighting to keep her breathing under control as the older Shinobi assessed her.

“You’re not wrong.”

For a moment, a sense of relief filled her. The validation, coming from someone that wasn’t the vitriolic voice in her head, felt like a drug. For a split second, she was high on the confirmation that someone _agreed_ , that-

“However. Have you considered, Haruno, that perhaps you’re part of the problem, too?”

Sakura jolts in surprise and hurt. She tenses, fight or flight senses kicking in when her brain registers the disparaging comment. Her eyes narrow and she takes a step back, considering her options. Considering how fast she could leave the ANBU and his scorn. Before she manages to make any moment, there is a warm hand on her shoulder.

“To use your own words, Haruno, I’m sorry if I’ve caused you offense. I didn’t mean to imply that it was purely your fault, or that the Shinobi system hasn’t had a hand in limiting your opportunities in life.However, I believe this is something you need to hear.”

She swallows, and the liquid feels like cinder ash as it travels down her throat. Minutely, she relaxes though doesn’t adjust her feet, still ready to leave if need be. She continues to look at the ANBU in the eye, wary of what Panther had to say next.

“I, myself, find Hatake-Senpai’s methods to be distasteful. Overtly showing favouritism, choosing who gets attention while not providing any sense of structure or guidance for your other students, disregarding obvious talent in a civilian born Kunoichi in order to focus on one related to a special clan, all these examples are ridiculous notions. No Jounin sensei should ever be allowed to exhibit such behaviour without reprimand.”

Sakura’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, her mind almost in shambles as she tries to piece together what the nin is telling her. 

“I don’t unders-”

Panther’s gloved hand flies up, silently asking for her to let him continue. The pinkette’s mouth snaps shut, an eerie sense of compulsion telling her not to speak overcoming her.

“You have been more patient with him then I ever would have been, Haruno. Nevertheless, I believe it’s vital to your career as a Shinobi that you learn this lesson. As a Ninja, you will face constant peril. Conflict and pain will be the only constant in your life. You will encounter challenges both inside and outside the battlefield. Most of the time, the circumstances will be debilitating and entirely out of your control. The one thing that you _can_ rely on, the one thing you have constant control over is yourself. Your mind set. How you choose to react to these situations, whether it's to overcome or to fall, will determine not only the type of Shinobi you are but the rest of your life,”

Panther stops, then. The mask and cloak hides most of his emotions, but if Sakura were to hazard a guess, she would say that it seemed like the Shinobi was hesitating, weighing out his next words carefully.

“From what I have observed over these past few months, you have improved significantly. And it’s undeniable that you’ve shown impressive determination to get there. You ask for my help now, but why not communicate these issues to Hatake-Senpai?”

“He’s never gone out of his way to help me! Am I supposed to come crawling to him for help!? “

Sakura feels the fury and bitterness heat up her skin, her face tingeing red as anger curls up in the pit of her stomach. Panther was suggesting talking to Kakashi as if he would ever give her the time of day! As if he would care to glance in her direction after a heart-to-heart while he overlooked her for nearly a year!

“Have you ever gone out of your way to speak to him? To show him how you feel about his lack of regard for your progress? Given him the chance to change? From what I understand, you weren’t exactly a stellar student during your first few months as a Genin, Haruno ”

“All I needed was a chance, Panther-San! A _CHANCE!_ ”

“And you have it! Each day you get a little bit better, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Now you just have to convince Hatake-Senpai of the same thing.”

Sakura’s nails dig into her palms as she breaks eye contact, breath coming in quick bursts as she stares at the space between their feet. Her eyes fill up with enraged tears and she fights to keep them at bay. At her lack of a response, Panther releases a deep sigh, then takes his hand off her shoulder. From the corner of her eye, Sakura sees him lower his hood and run his hand through tousled black locks. 

“Listen, Haruno. Your anger is valid. Hatake Kakashi is a terrible teacher. I know it, he knows it, everyone on this side of the continent probably knows it, too. What you’ve had to go through is unfair and frankly, ridiculous. But if you’re waiting for some magical moment, for him to wake up one day and realize that he’s been unfair to his students, to you, well, you’ll be waiting for a very long time. So take it into your own hands and show him why he shouldn’t underestimate you. These inter-team problems, these strained relationships, they _destroy_ teams in the field. Don’t let this destroy yours.”

Sakura exhales, eyes closing as she releases the air from her lungs in an attempt to stay calm. Her anger deflated, replaced by a bone deep exhaustion and resigned acceptance. Panther was harsh, but even through the hazy fog of resentment clouding her judgement, his logic seemed sound. Sakura turned to leave.

“I understand, Panther-San. I will do my best to consider your words.”

The masked nin appeared in front of her before she could go, hands on his hips.

“Oi. Pinky, I never said I wouldn’t teach you.”

Sakura stared into the slits of his mask, aghast. 

“D-Did you just say you want to teach me!?”

“I mean, somebody has to, clearly. Luckily for you, I’ve been told I’m pretty decent at Nintaijutsu! Got it from my uncle. Very nice man.”

The Genin continued to stare at the older Shinobi, finding no words.

“Y-You mean, you had that entire monologue about fixing my relationship with my sensei, just to tell me at the end that you’re okay with teaching me!?”

All she got from the insufferable ninja was a shrug. Not even a full one, either, just a half shrug.

“Eh, I can be a tad dramatic sometimes”

And just like that, the tense atmosphere between the two cleared as both burst out in laughter. Later that night, Sakura would contemplate their conversation, pick apart every little detail and weigh each piece of advice she was given very carefully. But for now, she spent the afternoon planning out a training schedule with Panther and Midori, and Sakura’s heart had never felt lighter. Maybe it was because of the fact that for once, someone actually _believed_ in her, in what she could become. Or maybe, it was what Panther said when she was about to leave for home.

“Hey, Haruno? About that insecurity complex you have going on-”

“I do _not_ have an insecurity complex! I just don’t like it when people underestimate me! Stop ruffling my hair!”

“By the time we’re done, your enemies will only get to underestimate you once.”

⋅•⦽•⋅

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE A DIRECT CONTINUATION OF THIS ONE! AND THEN, AFTER THAT, WE HAVE (GASPS) ??PLOT?? XD  
> As promised, a jumbo chapter to make up for how bad the last one was, lol! it was really interesting writing chapters in this length, I've started to consider making all of them like this. What do you guys think? instead of 3-4 chapters a week of around 4000 ish words all in all, it would be 1-2 chapters a week of about 9000 ish words. Tell me what you prefer!  
> We're on the second to last chapter of fics till we reach ACTUAL PLOT AND Y'ALL I'M SO EXCITED FOR THESE NEXT 20 CHAPTERS!!! There will be killer cows. Warrior Monks. A ridiculous amount of water talk and dam engineering logistics. Cults galore. Sakura, Sai and Naruto being in a circus troupe. Sasuke being slapped with a fish. Kakashi having his Moment TM. I'm so ready!!  
> All the hugs go to everyone for their kudos and support!! and an especially big bear hug goes to the people who reviewed; HouseOfMeme, Caelena, Fanonymous, Vindoletta, Mildrice, Hostile <3 <3 <3 XD , Clack, Knightly, pseudo-chan and pumpkin for their comments!! each one seriously makes chapters go just that smidge faster!  
> As always, thanks for taking the time to read this story and these notes!
> 
> COUGHSCOUGHSCOUGHS SNEAKPEAK COUGHSCOUGHSCOUGHS  
> "Leave my student alone, Shichirou."  
> “Hatake-Senpai, does it not bother you that you only seem to care about people when they’re dying or dead?”  
> <_<  
> >_>  
> HAVE A FANTASTIC FRIDAY!! <3 MW

**Author's Note:**

> It's 4 AM and I have no idea what I'm doing writing a fic that's going to be 50+ chapters long.,, but its something that I've wanted to write for a while now and, well, no time like the present! (ha, watch me regret that 3 chapters in!) anyways, I'll update thrice a week and I can't wait to have you guys along for the ride! Feel free to leave comments, reviews, theories as to where you think this is going (hint, Panther becomes a pretty big character later on) and anything you want to say! Feel free to follow me on Tumblr @Majestician! I hope everyone has a wonderful day, see you soon!
> 
> [  
> -MW-


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